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WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS ARE PRESENT
Main characters
Madison Lake Mitchell/Emily May
Portrayed by: Annabelle Wallis (adult) and Mckenna Grace (child)
The troubled protagonist of the film, who experiences visions of brutal murders.
- Alliterative Name: Madison Mitchell, which Gabriel highlights as twice inherited - the name from adoption, the surname by marriage.
- Amnesiac Resonance: Even though she's forgotten her childhood from before she was eight years old, she subconsciously calls Gabriel by name without him telling it to her. He even calls it out to her that she deep down knows the truth that she doesn't remember.
- Awful Wedded Life: Her husband is abusive and dismissive, and the attempts to make things easier through pregnancies always end in miscarriages.
- Child by Rape: Her birth mother was raped at fifteen and Madison (originally Emily) and Gabriel were the results. Madison turned out alright; Gabriel, not so much.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Madison always wears dark to black clothing and unlike her twin brother, she's a pleasant person without fearing for her life.
- The Dog Bites Back: After suffering the abuse of her parasitic twin brother, Madison reclaims control of her body and locks Gabriel away in her subconscious.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She's a troubled pale woman who is primarily associated with dark colors. She gets even paler once Gabriel takes over.
- Hair Color Spoiler: Her sister Sydney is blonde while Madison herself is a brunette hinting at the latter being an adopted family member. Their mother is also blonde, but this isn't shown until after this has been revealed.
- Happily Adopted: She was adopted at the age of seven and loves her family. The movie ends with her giving sisterly love to Sydney.
- Haunted Heroine: Witnessing the multiple murders caused by Gabriel, plus her connection to him, has not put Madison in a good state of mind throughout the film, understandably.
Gabriel
Portrayed by: Marina Mazepa & Ray Chase (voice)
The main antagonist of the film; a ruthless killer who has some connection with Madison.
- Ax-Crazy: He is a violently psychotic murderer who viciously massacres anyone in his path.
- Big Bad: He is the one that is committing all the killings that Madison is vividly seeing.
- Child by Rape: He and Madison were the result of their birth mother being raped as a teenager.
- Combo Platter Powers: Possesses Super-Strength, incredible agility, a Healing Factor, and the inexplicable ability to affect electronics in his surrounding area.
- The Dreaded: Earned the moniker of "The Devil" or "Monster" due to his malevolent behavior.
- Evil Laugh: He possesses a deep, maniacal laugh.
- Evil Sounds Deep: His deep and raspy voice only helps his intimidation.
- Evil Twin: Well, he is Madison's evil parasitic brother in a more technical sense of the word.
- Evil Is Visceral: When he takes full control of Madison's body, his horribly gnarled demonic face messily bursts out of the back of Madison's skull.
- Faux Affably Evil: He puts up an affable facade when manipulating Madison, but it never lasts long.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Justifies his actions through revenge and that he never wanted to be tethered to his sister. Madison rightfully throws this out and points out becoming a psychopathic monster is all on him.
- Healing Factor: Pretty much the only explanation as to how he can emerge and vanish without causing Madison any lasting physical damage, considering his head emerges messily out of the back of Madison's skull when he's in full control, not to mention to bone breaking he does in order to make her body mobile for himself.
- Ignored Epiphany: When his birth mother apologizes to him for giving him away, he almost seems to reconsider his actions... until he gets shot at.
- It's All About Me: Gabriel wants to be the one in control of Madison's body as the dominant host and despises Sydney because of how she "took Madison from him."
- Lightning Bruiser: He is ridiculously strong and just as ludicrously agile, making him practically impossible to beat in a straight fight. He only loses because of Madison regaining control of her body.
- Meaningful Appearance: Gabriel has long hair that covers most of his horrific-looking face due to coming out of the back of Madison's head.
- Psycho Knife Nut: His weapon of choice is a custom dagger and mixed in with his Super-Strength he is able to easily cut off limbs with powerful swings. If that wasn't enough said dagger was made from a trophy.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: He hardly speaks not in a paused word by word basis, enhancing his unnatural quality.
- Revenge: He wants to exact vengeance on those that operated on him and once that comes to fruition, he will finish off Madison's stepsister and birth mother for good measure.
- Revenge Is Not Justice: Confronted by his sister in the mental jail cell, he tries to claim that he became a monster because their birth mother gave them away. Madison retorts this by pointing out he was always a monster.
- Sadist: He takes a disturbing amount of satisfaction at terrorizing Madison.
- Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: In order to separate Gabriel from Madison, the surgeons destroyed most of his physical body, leaving whatever was left of him locked away in the back of Madison's head due to them both sharing a brain. He is condemned back into Madison's subconscious when she takes full control.
- Serial Killer: He starts off with killing the surgeons who originally performed the operation one by one after which he will kill Sydney and his mother to complete his revenge.
- The Sociopath: Gabriel manipulates Madison's visual cortex to make her think she was living her life normally while he took the wheel. That, and he would pretend to be friendly to his twin sister only to subtly push her to commit increasingly heinous actions. He is greatly self-centered and part of his resentment towards Sydney had to do with him feeling obsolete. But it is made crystal clear that he only values Madison because he needs her body to survive and thinks nothing of psychologically tormenting her. While he was motivated primarily to take out the doctors who performed the surgery to remove him from Madison, all the other murders suggest a form of stimulation on his end. And, naturally, he had no remorse for any of his monstrous behavior instead trying to pitch the blame on others.
- Split-Personality Takeover: His endgame; Gabriel wants to retake control of Madison's body, becoming the true host.
- Super-Strength: He's capable of tossing large objects across long distances with ease, can swing his custom dagger around hard enough to cut off entire limbs and practically break people's bones with his (rather Madison's) bare hands. This ends up carrying over to Madison herself after she realizes that the two of them sharing the same body means they also share the same abilities.
- Technopath: He can control electronics enough to talk through phones and radios despite his physical body seemingly lacking the capacity to speak, and to manipulate lights. He even causes an old security guard's pacemaker to explode!
- Villainous Breakdown: When Madison is finally able to turn the tables on him and lock him up in a mental prison that makes him go recessive again, he completely loses it.
- Walking Spoiler: His backstory and connection to Madison fuel the conflict of the film.
- Would Hurt a Child: Tried to force Madison to kill Sydney when she was still in the womb. There's also him personally killing the fetuses Madison was pregnant with to feed off them.
Sydney Lake
Portrayed by: Maddie Hasson
Madison's younger sister, who helps Madison uncover the truth behind her visions and Gabriel's killing spree.
- Burger Fool: She's working in a themed restaurant dressed as a faux-Disney Princess.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's a blonde Nice Girl who's looking out for her sister constantly.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: She helps Madison take back control of her body by calling out to her.
- Locked Out of the Loop: She wasn't aware that her sister is an adoptee and grew up assuming that they were biological sisters.
Serena May
Portrayed by: Jean Louisa Kelly (adult) and Madison Wolfe (child)
The birth mother of Madison and Gabriel.
- Child by Rape: She was raped when she was just fifteen and gave her children away to be taken care of at the Simion Research Hospital.
- Damsel in Distress: Gabriel kidnaps her and holds her hostage in Madison's home attic.
- Death by Childbirth: Madison's adopted mother was told that Serena died in childbirth.
- Teen Pregnancy: As a result of being raped.
Kekoa Shaw
Portrayed by: George Young
A police detective and the partner of Detective Moss.
- Determinator: When he chases after Gabriel.
- Fair Cop: Is an affable and handsome young police detective.
Regina Moss
Portrayed by: Michole Briana White
A police detective and the partner of Detective Shaw.
- Sassy Black Woman: She's got a bite to her.
Minor characters
Derek Mitchell
The former husband of Madison/Emily.
- Domestic Abuser: Resents Emily for the several miscarriages and tries to get Emily to open the bedroom door by claiming that he was remorseful.
- Karmic Death: After abusing his wife and inadvertently reawakening Gabriel, he is the first victim to be killed.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Him slamming the back of his wife's head was what set the movie's conflict into motion.
Jeanne Lake
Madison/Emily's adoptive mother and Sydney's birth mother.
